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2013 Goals for the Season: Focus on the Short Game. Who's with me?

My plan is to focus on the short game this year and as part of this journey, my plan is to experiment with my practice and focus a large majority of the time solely on the short game. Hopefully this results in lower scores and more birdies.

The plan is to post updates and share progress throughout the year right here... so feel free to jump in, share your stories, any tips or advice for honing the short game...

I like your thinking Mike. I generally spend about 2/3 of my price time putting, chipping and hitting sub 100 yard wedge shots. I have found that this routine works very well in helping with scoring consistency.

Count me in....I need help in that department as well. I need to improve my 100 yards and in game to lower my scores and stay consistent . I will be practicing a lot in the chipping and pitching area especially, I am horrid around the 50 and in yardages.

Will definitely keep everyone in the loop and hope to pick up a few tips from this discussion.

Mine is two fold. I have been working on putting all winter. I also have been working solely on drawing the ball on my drives. I have been battling a tragic slice, so my entire indoor range work has been on draws. Partially out of need and partially due to the fact that I didn't see the benefit of hitting wedges to a 20-30 yard net.

About a week before the USGA announced the anchored putter, I elected to try reversing my hands on the putter. Trying to use a claw grip didn't feel at all natural. Living in the land of the frozen tundra, I'm much more consistent hitting the ball square and following the direction aimed. If putting on carpets translates to greens, then I should be down to the challenge of reading greens as the best way to improve putting. Speed was ok last year, but I could miss any putt at any distance through pushes and pulls. 34 putts a game consistently is that goal. Too many lost opportunities ending in tap-ins to finish a hole last year.

Short game is a challenge. Hitting off mats doesn't translate as well to actual on the course lies. So getting within 12 feet of the pin from off the green consistently will help the putt total. Once the grass greens up in May....

My goal this year is to spend 75% of my time on my short game. I started to approach my game like this a month ago and have already seen an improvement in my scoring. The real obstacle I have left is what putting style to go with this year. I have been experimenting with cross handed putting grip. This style fits great for consistently hitting the middle of the putter face. However, I loose my feel and distance control. Can;t wait to see my scores by July of this year!!!!

I'm a 7 and tracked my stats last year. Up and down was under 20%. I think short game is the best place to focus! If I can keep the tee ball in the short grass I am looking forward to a great year. Start tomorrow with a chipping lesson.

My goal is to hit better drives. Problem is, I don't know how to effectively improve on the range. Hitting buckets and buckets of balls with the driver didn't help last year. Gotta start hitting it in the center of the face and hitting fairways. I sold the "white demon" over the weekend so I'm officially in the market. 913 D3 is officially the front runner. I will say that all of the scrambling I did last year vastly improved my short game. I had to improve to minimize damage on the scorecard. Good luck on your journey.

I'm planning a practice and workout schedule for when spring arrives...3 nights at gym and 2 nights at range during the weekdays...3 hours at range on weekends....1 hr putting, 1 hr chipping, 1 hr irons and woods..I hit the gym 5 days a week now but,when spring arrives I head outside....I practice my wedges at the local park on grass that I reseed after practice...I'm single so I have plenty of time to practice :).....I will join you Mike as soon as the weather improves....Ron

Sloppy wedge play is where I loose my strokes. That is where my focus will be this spring.

For chipping, as simple as this sounds, I need to remember to focus on where to land the ball, and make my club selection based on the amount of desired rollout. No more yeps on short side downhill chips, just putt them if it is not safe to chip them (maybe a 3 wood bump to clear the rough if it is against the grain).

I need to spend a lot more time working on partial swing shots. I will save a lot of strokes if I stop misjudging and mishitting those shots inside 100 yards.

As I get older, the things I was able to do earlier have faded to some degree. Now I aim to stay as limber as possible and just enjoy the game. But, I still am working on my drives and short game. There is something about this game we call GOLF that keeps me going and striving to better my game.